The traditional electronic video poker gaming machine is designed to replicate the play of a hand of poker. The player does not play against any other player's hands or against a dealer's hand; the player simply attempts to achieve the highest ranking poker hand possible from the cards displayed to the player on the display screen of an electronic gaming machine. The higher the ranking of the poker hand achieved by the player, the greater the player's winnings based on the number of coins, tokens or credits wagered by the player. Typically, a payout schedule is posted on the gaming machine to advise the player of the payoffs available for certain winning card combinations.
The first electronic video poker gaming machine displayed a simple game of video Draw Poker machine that was dealt from a standard 52 card poker deck and displayed a single five card hand to the player. The player then selected which of the five cards he wished to hold (or discard depending on the format of the gaming machine). The draw poker machine then displayed replacement cards for the cards the player discarded. The player won or lost based on conventional poker hand rankings for the resulting five card hand.
In conventional video Draw Poker, the conventional poker hand rankings that are winning combinations are a Royal Flush, 0o a Straight Flush, a Four of a Kind, a Full House, a Flush, a Straight, a Three of a Kind, a Two Pair and a Pair of Jacks of Better. Anything less than a Pair of Jacks of Better is typically a losing hand. A pay table for the winning hand combinations is established based on the number of coins, tokens or credits wagered by the player and the type of poker hand achieved.
The classic draw poker machine has been modified to use jokers as wild cards or to use deuces (or even other cards) as wild cards. "Joker's Wild" and "Deuces Wild" draw poker still display to the player a single five card hand and allow the player to discard unwanted cards and receive replacement cards. The payout table is modified to recognize the differing odds for achieving various poker hands when wild cards are involved. Furthermore, different poker hand rankings are used in the pay table to recognize different winning combinations that can be achieved using wild cards.
There have been modifications to the method of play of traditional single hand video draw poker. For example, many different types of pay tables have been developed to attract players and allow for higher payouts than were available in conventional draw poker. For example, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double-Double Bonus Poker and Triple Bonus Poker all provide relatively large payouts for the higher ranking poker hands while providing smaller payouts for the lower ranking poker hands.
Another variation of conventional video draw poker is a series of games that go under the common name of "Deal/Draw" video poker games. "Deal/Draw" video poker games are disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,259 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,774, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by this reference.
In "Deal/Draw" video poker games, the player makes a single wager to be eligible to play the game. The player can win on the deal of the initial five card hand and also after the draw step of the method of play. This gives the player the opportunity to win twice on each play of a hand of cards.
Another variation of video draw poker is a video poker game known as "Triple Play Poker" which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference. In the method of play described in this patent, the player makes three separate wagers to play three different five card poker hands. A first five card hand is dealt from a first deck of playing cards. The player selects which of the first five cards he wishes to hold and these held cards are duplicated into the second and third hands. Replacement cards are dealt for the cards discarded from the first hand. From a second deck, cards are dealt to complete the second hand with five cards. From a third deck, cards are dealt to complete the third hand with five cards. Each hand is analyzed to determine its poker hand ranking and winning hands are paid according to the pay table.
Traditional five card draw video poker usually allowed the player to wager a maximum of five credits per hand. "Triple Play Poker" increases the maximum wager to fifteen credits (five credits on each hand) and thus increases the revenue handle of the gaming machine. There is a need in the video gaming machine market to increase the revenue handle of these games by allowing and encouraging players to increase the number of credits wagered on each hand.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new form of video poker game that allows the player to wager up to fifty credits on each round of play and therefore increases the revenue handle of the game while at the same time offering the player an exciting game with many chances to achieve winning hands.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a multi-hand screen display which initially displays to the player a five-by-five matrix of twenty-five cards. This five-by-five generates twelve five card hands--the five horizontal rows, the five vertical columns and the two diagonals. The cards in each horizontal row are dealt from a separate deck of cards. A player may select one card from each horizontal row to be held and this selected card is also duplicated into an adjacent row location in that row. Replacement cards for the discarded cards are dealt into each horizontal row. Each of the twelve different five card hands are analyzed for poker hand rankings and winning hands are paid in accordance with a pay table.
It is an alternative feature of the present invention to provide that the twelve different five cards are analyzed after the initial deal for winning hand combinations and to pay the player for those winning hand combinations prior to the commencement of the hold and draw step. This adds a "Deal/Draw" feature to the method of play of the present invention.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the player is given multiple possible winning hand combinations and, in effect, allows the player to play twelve hands for the traditional cost of ten hands.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.